Damien Fleming figures out one major chink in Australia's armour

The current state of Australian cricket isn’t the most joyful by any means. Earlier in March, they lost three players in Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft owing to the shambolic ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Tim Paine took over the mantle of leadership and hasn’t been able to guide his team to even one victory, combining ODI and Test cricket.

Recently, the Men in Yellow played an ODI series against arch-rivals England followed by a T20I in Birmingham. However, they stumbled throughout and were beaten black and blue. Albeit their batting performed to some extent, the bowlers were disappointing, to say the least. Former Australian cricketer Damien Fleming reckons that death-bowling is a major concern for their cricket.

You have to bowl a bit differently

“Who’s our best death bowler? I don’t think we know who our best closing bowler is, Where bowlers (on the fringes) can get a gig is with death bowling. The challenge for our domestic bowlers and in the Big Bash, is to put your hand up to bowl the tough overs at the end,” Fleming was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“Because if you’re the best closer in the Big Bash or in the 50-over format, you might get yourself a ticket to England. That last spot (in the World Cup squad) I reckon is up for grabs and it’s the specialist death bowler. You are playing this summer trying to get yourself into that World Cup team,” the former fast-bowler remarked.

The likes of Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye were the fast bowlers in charge for the Aussies in the series, but none of them could perform on a consistent basis. The Brits notched the highest score of 481 in ODI cricket as their bowlers tried their hearts out. Despite the drubbing, Fleming hailed them, however, mentioned the value of variations in bowling while defending a low score.

“I really like the bowlers who were there (in the UK) in (Billy) Stanlake, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Tye and (Michael) Neser, But If you’re only scoring 250 and you’re trying to bowl out an England team over there, you have to bowl a bit differently,” the 48-year-old added.

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